Friday, January 31, 2014

ADS THAT APPEAR HERE

I have no idea how ads make their way onto this blog. However, after seeing one about Senator Ted Cruz (Republican Senator from Texas), I feel compelled to write something about my political beliefs. First, I am a proud "tax and spend" liberal. I find it obscene that a few people in this country and on this planet hoard riches while literally billions of people lack the basic necessities of life. A terrible part of this imbalance is that far too few people find the imbalance just plain wrong.

The lesson of the "loaves and fishes" at one level is simple: there is plenty for everyone IF some don't hoard. Republicans in recent decades have aligned themselves and their party with the wealthiest among us. Republicans have used "principles" to make their alliance with the wealthy a "principled" one. There is another basic Christian message yet to be applied by this group of people. Substitute principle for sabbath, and the lesson becomes simple enough that even those held to the Grover Norquist pledge of "No New Taxes, Ever!" can understand it.

Principles aligned with truth and compassion serve as a wheel that carries one into the world to live a creative and satisfying life. Principles aligned with greed and power tie one to a spinning wheel of ups and downs. One is dragged along by events that create winners and losers. Staying on top becomes more and more difficult and requires greater and greater resources of power and money. The one thing absolutely unaffordable to these individuals is empathy. These "principled" people seem not to realize they are going nowhere. To win is to keep the wheel static; those on top remain on top; those on the bottom, cannot move. The result: A terribly static, sterile, lifeless situation.